Technical Field.
This Patent Document relates generally to master/host-slave systems, including slave configuration/function control.
Related Art.
In a master/host-slave system, a master/host processor commonly communicates with slave devices, such as MCU (microcontroller units) through a standardized communication bus, such as SPI, I2C (referred to as com links).
System design flexibility for both masters and slaves can be enhanced by the integration of hardware function blocks requiring control, operation or configuration that is not practical over these com links. For example, a master can integrate hardware function blocks such as hardware state machines or hardware accelerators that need to send real-time requests to slaves (including slave-side hardware function blocks) that are not practical over these com links because either these hardware blocks are not configured for the communication protocol, or these com links are too slow to support real-time function requests. Also, a slave can integrate hardware function blocks such as phase locked loops and transmitter/receivers that require real-time configuration/control that again is not practical over these com links.
One approach is using slave-side hardware state machines or software interrupt service routines. However, because customer requirements change, it can be problematic to re-configure/update slave-side hardware function blocks. It is also problematic for traditional interrupt service routines to handle complex requests requiring a number of input parameters.